My dad worked as a director for the largest grocery chain in Canada for most of his life. On our morning commute in the early 1990s, he didn't impose many of his visionary opinions on his impressionable son. Every once and a while though, when he was absolutely confident that he wasn't leading me astray, he'd look me right in the soul, the way only a father can.

If you'd asked me when I was a child what the world would look like in 2020, I would have predicted flying cars, hovercrafts, transporters and a colony on the moon. So, when I read that the nonprofit firm Forum for the Future (yes, such a thing exists) had published a report claiming that sustainable products and services will be mainstream by 2020, admittedly, I was skeptical.

Small and quiet hybrid cars, reusable shopping bags, eating organically; on the surface, going green isn't the easiest thing for the typical male ego to adjust to. While some people would argue that the true example of masculinity is a man who doesn't care what others think of him, let's face it, men can be self-conscious, too.

Last month's column about community-based social marketing generated a lot of mail. Most people agreed that what's needed is more innovative experimentation in the field, and that best practices for this new green marketing approach would evolve through real-life testing.